Tag Archives: Substance Addiction

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of substance addiction.

See also Alcoholism and Drug abuse & use.

I’m Fine and Neither Are You by Camille Pagán

I’m Fine and Neither Are You by Camille Pagán

Wife. Mother. Breadwinner. Penelope Ruiz-Kar is doing it all—and barely keeping it together. Meanwhile, her best friend, Jenny Sweet, appears to be sailing through life. As close as the two women are, Jenny’s passionate marriage, pristine house, and ultra-polite child stand in stark contrast to Penelope’s underemployed husband, Sanjay, their unruly brood, and the daily grind she calls a career. Then a shocking tragedy reveals that Jenny’s life is far from perfect. Reeling, Penelope vows to stop keeping the peace and finally deal with the issues in her relationship. So she and Sanjay agree to a radical proposal: both will write a list of changes… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Substance addiction
  • Overdose
  • Chronic illness
  • Infertility mentioned

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

Isobel Gamble is a young seamstress carrying generations of secrets when she sets sail from Scotland in the early 1800s with her husband, Edward. An apothecary who has fallen under the spell of opium, his pile of debts have forced them to flee Edinburgh for a fresh start in the New World. But only days after they’ve arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic––leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country, forced to make her way by any means possible. When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two are instantly drawn to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Slavery
  • Misogyny
  • Domestic violence
  • Substance addiction
  • Self-harm including self-flagellation
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Lynching
  • Kidnapping
  • Torture

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

No outsiders are ever admitted to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec, where two dozen cloistered monks live in peace and prayer. They grow vegetables, they tend chickens, they make chocolate. And they sing. Ironically, for a community that has taken a vow of silence, the monks have become world-famous for their glorious voices, raised in ancient chants whose effect on both singer and listener is so profound it is known as “the beautiful mystery.” But when the renowned choir director is murdered, the lock on the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Paedophilia
  • Substance addiction
  • Drug use & abuse
  • Police brutality
  • Gun violence

That’s Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger

That’s Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger

It’s been three years since the Virgil County High School Massacre. Three years since my best friend, Sarah, was killed in a bathroom stall during the mass shooting. Everyone knows Sarah’s story–that she died proclaiming her faith. But it’s not true. I know because I was with her when she died. I didn’t say anything then, and people got hurt because of it. Now Sarah’s parents are publishing a book about her, so this might be my last chance to set the record straight . . . but I’m not the only survivor with a story to tell about what did–and didn’t–happen that day. Except Sarah’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Alcoholism mentioned
  • Substance addiction mentioned
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Blood depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • School shooting
  • Bullying

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

Fresh out of rehab, Mallory Quinn takes a job in the affluent suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy. Mallory immediately loves this new job. She lives in the Maxwell’s pool house, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body. As the days pass… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Transmisia
  • Substance addiction recovery
  • Kidnapping of a child

Ruthless People by J.J. McAvoy

Ruthless People by J.J. McAvoy

To the outside world, they look like American royalty, giving to charities, feeding the homeless, and rebuilding the city. But behind closed doors is a constant battle for dominance between two bosses, cultures, and hearts. Ruthless People is a romantic crime fiction set in modern day Chicago and follows the life and marriage of Melody Giovanni and Liam Callahan – rivals by blood and leaders through fear. Theirs is an arranged marriage with the goal of ending years of bloodshed between the Irish and the Italians. Liam assumes he’s getting a simple-minded wife, one he can… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Arranged marriage
  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Neglect & abandonment
  • Nyctophobia
  • Substance addiction
  • Drugging
  • Miscarriage
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Hospitalisation
  • Needles mentioned
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Plane crash

The Stranger Times by C.K. McDonnell

The Stranger Times by C.K. McDonnell

A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but mostly the weird), it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable. At least that’s their pitch. The reality is less auspicious. Their editor is a drunken, foul-tempered, and foul-mouthed husk of a man who thinks little of the publication he edits. His staff are a ragtag group of misfits. And as for the assistant editor… well, that job is a revolving door–and it has just revolved to reveal Hannah Willis, who’s got problems of her own. When tragedy strikes in Hannah’s first week on the job, The Stranger Times is forced to do some… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & slurs
  • Homomisia & slurs
  • Alcoholism
  • Substance addiction
  • Suicide

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

Walk has never left the coastal California town where he grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. Now, thirty years later, Vincent is being released. Duchess is a thirteen-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Her mother, Star, grew up with Walk and Vincent. Walk is in overdrive trying to protect them, but Vincent and Star seem bent on sliding deeper into self-destruction. Star always burned bright, but recently that light has dimmed, leaving Duchess to parent not only her mother but her five-year-old… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child neglect
  • Substance addiction
  • Alcoholism
  • Suicide
  • Murder

The Chain by Adrian McKinty

The Chain by Adrian McKinty

It’s something parents do every morning: Rachel Klein drops her daughter at the bus stop and heads into her day. But a cell phone call from an unknown number changes everything: it’s a woman on the line, informing her that she has Kylie bound and gagged in her back seat, and the only way Rachel will see her again is to follow her instructions exactly: pay a ransom, and find another child to abduct. This is no ordinary kidnapping: the caller is a mother herself, whose son has been taken, and if Rachel doesn’t do as she’s told, the boy will die. “You are not the first. And you will certainly not be the last.” Rachel is now part of The Chain… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Military Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Substance addiction
  • Drug abuse & use, on-page
  • Protagonist with cancer
  • Death and resuscitation of a child for anaphylactic shock
  • Murder
  • Gun violence & threats of gun violence
  • Kidnapping & captivity of children, on-page (theme)
  • Disappearance of a daughter
  • Stalking
  • Physical assault with a wrench and physical assault of a child
  • Animal hunting

The Corpse Queen by Heather Herrman

The Corpse Queen by Heather Herrman

Soon after her best friend Kitty mysteriously dies, orphaned seventeen-year-old Molly Green is sent away to live with her “aunt.” With no relations that she knows of, Molly assumes she has been sold as free domestic labor for the price of an extra donation in the church orphanage’s coffers. Such a thing is not unheard of. There are only so many options for an unmarried girl in 1850s Philadelphia. Only, when Molly arrives, she discovers her aunt is very much real, exceedingly wealthy, and with secrets of her own. Secrets and wealth she intends to share–for a price.⁠… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Slut shaming
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Prescription drug addiction
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Death of a pregnant woman
  • ‘Botched’ abortion mentioned
  • Blood, gore & mutilation
  • Dead bodies
  • Rabies
  • Surgery
  • Murder
  • Poisoning
  • Drowning
  • Animal death (dog)
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